April 11th Rankings

No changes in the top 10, with the top players not in action as the clay season begins.

Winners:

Casablanca
Pablo Andujar ESP (85)
1st round Florent Serra FRA (107) | 6-1 3-6 6-2
2nd round #6 Jeremy Chardy FRA (54) | 7-6(6) 6-1
Quarters Pere Riba ESP (98) | 6-2 6-2
Semis #1 Albert Montanes ESP (30) | 6-4 6-4
Final #5 Potito Starace ITA (42) | 6-1 6-2
Average Opponent Rank 66.2

Houston
Ryan Sweeting USA (65)
1st round Tim Smyczek USA (133) | 6-2 6-2
2nd round #2 Sam Querrey USA (33) | 3-6 7-6(5) 6-3
Quarters Teymuraz Gabashvili RUS (93) | 3-6 6-3 6-1
Semis Ivo Karlovic CRO (49) | 7-6(3) 6-3
Final #6 Kei Nishikori JPN (32) | 6-4 7-6(3)
Average Opponent Rank 68.0

Andujar was a surprising winner, but Casablanca wasn't a particularily strong field, with no really strong players. The 25-year-old Spaniard dropped a set in his opening match, but then won all his remaining matches in straights, including impressive victories over Chardy and Montanes.

Sweeting has had a strong start to the season, and continued that with his first ATP title on the clay at Houston. He didn't need a top 30 win to take the title, but did well to beat Querrey in round two and Nishikori in the final.

Challengers:
Monza: #7 Julian Reister GER (111) d. Alessio di Mauro ITA (114)
Pereira: #5 Paolo Lorenzi ITA (174) d. #7 Rogerio Dutra Da Silva BRA (166)
Recife: #2 Tatsuma Ito JPN d. Tiago Fernandes BRA (498) Walkover

Futures:
Australia F4: James Lemke AUS (311)
Chile F2: Guillaume Rufin FRA (202)
Croatia F5: Marc Sieber GER (416)
Italy F3: Daniele Giorgini ITA (258)
Spain F11: Morgan Phillips GBR (470)
Thailand F2: Danai Udomchoke THA (213)
Turkey F12: Radu Albot MDA (455)
USA F9: Arnau Brugues-Davi ESP (222)

Riser of the Week (top 100):
Ryan Sweeting USA (65), Up 14
No surprise that the Houston champ gets a big boost; he had a solid run at the tournament last year, qualifying and winning a match, but his maiden ATP title lifts him to the edge of the top 60.

Riser of the Week (other):
Arnau Brugues-Davi ESP (222), Up 42
The 26-year-old Spanish journeyman, who plays mostly in the US, has been on fire of late, winning back-to-back futures events, including won this week that saw him beat Chris Guccione (171) and Alex Bogdanovic (220) to take the win.

Dropper of the Week (top 100):
Victor Hanescu ROU (77), Down 12
The Romanian had the relatively rare occurance of taking a major drop after making the semifinals of an ATP event. Last year, he got some strong results in Morocco, beating Jarkko Nieminen (55) and Richard Gasquet (18), and finally losing to Stanislas Wawrinka (7). This year, his best win came over Daniel Gimeno-Traver (88), and he lost to Potito Starace (42).

Dropper of the Week (other):
Joao Souza BRA (259), Down 43
Souza won the Bogota challenger last year, getting two nice wins over Colombian players in Santiago Giraldo (56) and Alejandro Falla (126). This week, he played in Colombia as well, at Pereira, but lost in the second round to Juan Sebastian Cabal (269).


1 (1). Rafael Nadal ESP - 834.9
Last week: None

2 (2). Novak Djokovic SRB - 823.9
Last week: None

3 (3). Roger Federer SUI - 821.3
Last week: None

4 (4). Robin Soderling SWE - 796.7
Last week: None

5 (5). Andy Murray GBR - 790.7
Last week: None

6 (6). David Ferrer ESP - 786.4
Last week: None

7 (7). Stanislas Wawrinka SUI - 780.7
Last week: None

8 (8). David Nalbandian ARG - 777.7
Last week: None

9 (9). Tomas Berdych CZE - 773.8
Last week: None

10 (10). Gael Monfils FRA - 773.2
Last week: None

11 (12). Juan Martin del Potro ARG - 772.7
Last week: None

12 (11). Mardy Fish USA - 771.1
Last week: Houston QF (l. Nishikori)

13 (13). Andy Roddick USA - 768.9
Last week: None

14 (14). Jurgen Melzer AUT - 767.3
Last week: None

15 (15). Nicolas Almagro ESP - 765.2
Last week: None

16 (16). Jo-Wilfried Tsonga FRA - 763.0
Last week: None

17 (17). Fernando Verdasco ESP - 762.8
Last week: None

18 (18). Richard Gasquet FRA - 761.3
Last week: None

19 (19). Mikhail Youzhny RUS - 756.9
Last week: None

20 (20). Viktor Troicki SRB - 756.7
Last week: None

21 (21). Gilles Simon FRA - 755.3
Last week: Casablanca QF (l. Starace)

22 (22). Philipp Kohlschreiber GER - 749.4
Last week: None

23 (24). Lleyton Hewitt AUS - 748.2
Last week: None

24 (23). Marin Cilic CRO - 747.7
Last week: None

25 (25). Michael Llodra FRA - 745.4
Last week: None

In: None
Out: None